Thieves are cashing in on an increasingly lucrative beekeeping market by snatching entire hives, with 135 reported thefts over the past six years.

New figures show that hundreds of thousands of bees have been taken from apiaries across England and Wales since 2011.

Queen bees of certain strains can fetch up to £180, fuelling speculation that the price tag has motivated the surge in thefts.

Martin Smith, public affairs manager at the British Beekeepers’ Association, said: “As beekeeping has grown in popularity in recent years, it has become more visible to the general public.

“In addition, more people have decided to come into the craft as complete novices.”

Many people choose not to go on formal courses for beekeeping and are more likely to take up the offer of a hive from a stranger, he said.

Historically, owners usually got bees from “trusted sources”, he said.

“These two factors have increased awareness of the opportunity for theft and generated a source of customers and will have undoubtedly increased the numbers of thefts.

“In addition, beekeeping in general and the price of a colony of bees in particular have risen in cost in recent years as good colonies have become sought after,” he said. “A colony of bees that a few years ago might have sold for £25, can now sell for above £200.”

The police forces that received the most reports of beehive or bee thefts were West Mercia and Lincolnshire, with 14 recorded since 2011.

Lincolnshire also had the highest value theft, with the loss marked at £8,000.

Of the 42 police forces in England and Wales, only nine did not respond to a freedom of information request for details about the number of thefts.

Smith said: “It is a sad fact that most hive thefts are probably undertaken by beekeepers or at least those with a rudimentary knowledge of the craft.”

Katie Hayward, a beekeeper based in Cemaes, Anglesey, had four beehives stolen in 2015.

She said: “They were quite cheeky when they did it to us because they took them from in front of my farmhouse.”

Hayward is the managing director of Felin Honeybees, an education centre and honey farm that also uses therapy bees.

She added: “The bees that were in that apiary are the ones that we open to the public.

“It took me five years to breed that strain of bee … they are so gentle. It wasn’t just the fact that they took my girls – and I love my bees – it’s the fact that they took those hives.”

She said it was likely that the thieves had visited the centre and met her, as they walked past the other hives and targeted those which housed her gentle bees. “If you have got a very good DNA strain, if you breed from them, you can name your price on the queen because we breed black bees. If they were buckfast or carnies they only sell for about £40 each, but these queens, you can sell the queens for about £180.”

Hayward said she was convinced another beekeeper had stolen her bees. She said: “It is heartbreaking, the fact that another beekeeper had come to my home and done that to me, and we help children with our bees. We use them as therapy – we stop children from self-harming. And that is what these bees are used for. You just feel violated in every single way, it is horrific.”

It is thought there are at least 30,000 beekeepers in England and Wales.